Negative Impact of Social Media on Society and Democracy (Essay Sample)

Have you ever thought about how our society has changed ever since social media first appeared? Around 2010, when social media became widely available on smartphones, we also began to see changes in society and behavior. Nowadays, social media has become a big part of our lives. With this in mind, the use of social media has caused more harm to our democracy and society due to the spread of misinformation and promoting online harassment, even though others argue that social media is helpful to democracy and promotes a healthy society. 

First, social media feeds send a variety of different posts, such as the news or pictures of a person; however, social media and their algorithms don’t detect which news or other informative posts are fake or true. As a result, it promotes the spread of misinformation. “According to a team of researchers in Italy, people on social media tend to share content that relates to a specific narrative, even if it’s false. The researchers mapped the spread of conspiracy theories and scientific information on social media. They found that, instead of sharing content that challenges views, social media users lean towards “confirmation bias”, which is a person’s tendency to search, read and share information that confirms their pre-existing beliefs, and it’s not just the conspiracy theorists who do it”(Brickner Par. 2 & 3). It means that the contents from social media apps exposed to us are based on our beliefs collected from algorithms which collect every bit of information about yourself in their data. Then use it to expose you to more content regardless if it is fake and doesn’t challenge our views. This can be traced to algorithms which function to grab your attention in order to make you glued to their platforms. As a result,  nearly everyone believes every post being displayed on their screen is true. With the spread of misinformation, social media has created ignorance, confusion, and violence between humans. “Facebook … knows, they have admitted in public, that engagement-based ranking is dangerous without integrity and security systems, but then not rolled out those integrity and security systems to most of the languages in the world,” Haugen said. “And that’s what is causing things like ethnic violence in Ethiopia'' (Akinwotu Par. 11). “One of the groups flagged in the March report was the "Fano"( an ethnic Amhara militia group with a reputation for brutality that has been drawn into the war in Tigray, sometimes fighting alongside Ethiopian government forces. Facebook said it had observed a cluster of accounts affiliated with the militia group, including some based in Sudan, using its platform to "seed calls for violence," promote armed conflict, recruit and fundraise (Mackintosh Par. 9).” This reveals that there is a link between social media platforms and their impact on our society, such as the ethnic violence in Ethiopia. Social media is well-aware of how misinformation negatively affects our society, but isn't doing anything to fix their platforms  to detect this. More importantly, in the hands of users (either intentionally or not) who are sharing fake news such as information about minority groups or events, that false information can and has led to violence. The Fano militia group's use of Facebook demonstrates how their hate speeches and hate posts can be the possible root cause for ethnic violence for taking the lives of many innocent people in Ethiopia. If there was regulation in Facebook or Facebook would change their platforms, there would be less quarrels between people and prevent spread of hatred and violence due to misinformation. 

Secondly, social media like Facebook and Instagram encourage online harassment.  “As noted, cyberbullying existed before the emergence of social media – and may have included trolling on forums, message boards and even chat rooms; as well as the sharing of inappropriate photos by teens; or just the sharing of secrets and the spreading of rumors online…On these social media platforms, cyberbullies can make hurtful and emotionally scarring comments anonymously”( Suciu Par. 8-9). This reveals one major negative impact of social media is cyberbullying which can come in forms such as sharing inappropriate photos, making mean comments, or the spread of false rumors . Cyberbullying has become a big issue since social media was created. Cyberbullies would make it hard for law enforcement to catch them, because the user can just delete their account and appear as if they never existed. In some cases, this can lead to actual bullying at school, work place, or other public places. In addition, the victims of cyberbullying have emotional scars  and developed low self-esteem. With this in mind, social media platforms haven't changed to protect these victims or prevent any form of cyberbullying. This can lead to a prejudiced society for everyone who believes what these cyberbullies are posting online and leading to the public targeting the victims.  “Research suggests that up to 7 in 10 young people have experienced online abuse at some point.1 The term ‘cyberbullying’ is often treated as a distinct phenomenon, but it is an extension of bullying, which is an age-old problem. Bullying taps into societal undertones of prejudice and discrimination and often impacts people with protected characteristics of race, religion, sexuality, gender identity and disability the most” (Hackett par. 5). This illustrates how cyber bullying in forms of spreading false statements about someone or distributing inappropriate photos of someone in social media is preventing our society from progressing into a friendly and acceptable one for everyone of any race, gender etc. As mentioned before, more people are likely to be bullied online proving that social media aren’t doing anything to prevent bullying online and contribute to a prejudiced society.  

Despite the increase in misinformation and polarization, some believe that social media benefits our society by helping us stay connected and access more information. People believe social media is helpful to the health of our society and democracy, because of two main reasons: communication and unity. “Digital media has also enhanced information sharing across the world, giving people much greater access to facts, figures, statistics, and similar, allowing that information to circulate much faster…Digital media is also allowing people around the world to build communities, organize action and make their voices heard on a multitude of issues”( Benefits and Opportunities par. 6-7)  This demonstrates that social media has enabled us to communicate faster, meaning that we are able to speak with one another, such as from one country to another. As a result, we are breaking language and culture barriers to be more understanding and create connections with others in our society worldwide. Another benefit to our society is that social media platforms have increased unity rather than a division among us. It is because everyone is able to use social media making it easier to communicate and access information nationwide in news or other social media’s posts. Thus, we are able to unite as a whole to combat things like misinformation, hate speech, or social injustice happening online and in the real world. “During and after the 2016 election, Russian agents created social media accounts to spread fake news that stirred protests and favored presidential candidate Donald Trump while discrediting candidate Hillary Clinton and her associates. They paid Facebook for advertisements that appeared on that site to spread fake news and turn Americans against one another”(The Danger of par. 3). This demonstrates how people can access information faster, but there are others who display false information in social media platforms and distribute it leading to conflicts rather than unity between people. Although it is agreeable that social media platforms have helped us come together and spread awareness of social injustice, the negative impacts (misinformation, conflicts, and cyberbullying ) have severely damaged our society. These negative impacts have caused tension that can sometimes be violence worldwide and people are likely to be bullied more online in our society without having social media platforms being held accountable.

Fake news, propaganda, and cyberbullying are great examples of how greatly it negatively affects our society and democracy. Social media has caused more harm to our society and has led to a divide among us even though others insist that social media’s websites have encouraged a healthy society through uniting people together, helping them to communicate efficiently and resulting in the creation of strong connections/relationships with each other. Although some of these benefits are valid, social media in the end has increased conflict and decreased our ability to be more acceptable to each other which is currently weakening our society and democracy.